Lettering
by TheNextFolchart
Summary: "We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." /Three students who didn't expect to get a Hogwarts letter, and one who expected nothing less. Written for HPFC. [Word count: 2,717]
1. Special

_This was written primarily for the Master of Sentences Challenge. Its entire 594-word body is exactly one (grammatically correct, non-run-on) sentence._

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**Special**

Lily turned the thick envelope, which was punctured at the top by the owl's talons and slightly crunched from being clutched in its feet, over in her hands and felt a slow smile begin to grow across her face, because this was it: this was the letter Severus had told her about, the one he'd explained she'd receive on her eleventh birthday, the letter she _hadn't really expected to receive at all _(because yes, she was odd, and yes, she could do freakish things without explaining how she'd done them, but magic and wizards and Hogwarts and letters delivered by owl all seemed a little too fanciful to come true) and yet here it was, in her hands, punctured top and all, begging to be opened; she slid her finger beneath the flap of the envelope and dragged it along the edge, tearing the paper (no, not paper - it was too heavy to be just paper - this was _parchment_) and dipping her trembling fingers inside to pull out the loose papers folded up and squirreled away inside, and even though it was addressed to her, Lily still felt a terrible thrill, as if opening this bit of mail was forbidden and she was Pandora unleashing the contents of the infamous Box; she could feel her heart pounding, and for a split second she wondered if this was Sev's idea of a practical joke, and if maybe Tuney was right, she _was _just a freak and magic didn't exist at all (because as much as she liked Sev, she didn't know him all that well, and he could have been insane or a bully or a liar, and he'd never shown her any proof of his magic, either, he'd never pulled out his wand and shown her any spells, and maybe he was just _wrong_); Lily had unfolded the letter, but she hadn't started to read yet, she was too busy staring blankly at the green ink and trying to decide whether she wanted to believe in the impossible, because Tuney hated the impossible and Severus loved it and she, Lily, wasn't totally sure where her loyalties lay yet; she knew her family was waiting in the kitchen with a great big birthday cake, and she knew she'd already been standing out at the mailbox for far too long, and that any second someone would come outside to see if she was alright, but she didn't move, she couldn't move, she had to read the letter (she _didn't want to read the letter_), she had to make a choice (_between family and her own nature), _she had to decide whether to run inside and tell her parents everything or whether to throw the letter into the air and let the wind carry it far away; Lily took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and began to read; the green ink told her she'd been accepted (_"We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…") _and that someone would be coming to explain it all to her parents ("_...as a Muggle (non-magical person) -born student, you are likely unaware of Hogwarts, but we will be sending a representative from the school to enlighten you and your family…") _and that she had until September 1st to decide, but Lily didn't need all that time, she'd made up her mind after only one line, because it wasn't a joke: magic _did _exist, after all, and that meant she wasn't a freak, but rather that she was very, very special.

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_[Master of Sentences Challenge: Easy]_

_[Collect a Collection Competition: Lily Evans]_

_[100 Prompts challenge: Acceptance]_

_[Star Challenge: Adara - write about Lily Evans]_


	2. Unique

_This was written primarily for the Master of Sentences Challenge. Its entire 750-word body is exactly one (grammatically correct, non-run-on) sentence._

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**Unique**

Remus Lupin stared at the clock on his bedside table, which was ticking maddeningly slowly, as if every second was a new taunt (_tick - you - tock - aren't - tick - going - tock - to - tick - Hogwarts - tock_), and at midnight, when both hands were pointed straight up in the air to mark the official end to his eleventh birthday, Remus buried his head in his arms and began to sob; the letter hadn't come, in spite of his mother's reassurances that it would, in spite of his father's promises that being a werewolf didn't make him any less of a wizard, in spite of all the _hoping _and _wishing _and _dreaming _Remus had done - there was no letter, and that meant there was no Hogwarts, and that meant there was nothing left for Remus to do but sit in his bedroom and twiddle his thumbs while he waited for death; there it was now, tapping on his window with its terrible scythe, and Remus squeezed his eyes closed as the tapping continued (_tap - you - tap - are - tap - going - tap - to - die_) and then got faster (_tap_-_you-tap-are-tap-a-tap-freak) _and then stopped for a moment before starting up again rapidly (_tap_open_tap_your_tap_window_taptaptap) _and finally Remus lifted his head; on the other side of the window, slamming its beak into the glass as hard as it could, was a large tawny owl with an envelope clamped between its talons, and in spite of everything Remus began to hope again, because yes, it was past midnight, and yes, it wasn't technically his birthday anymore, but maybe the owl had gotten lost, and maybe Hogwarts letters didn't always arrive on time, and maybe there was _still a chance_; he slid the window open for the owl and ushered it inside, but it gave a squawk when he tried to touch it, so he settled for just taking the letter instead (and it was addressed to him, it was addressed to Remus J. Lupin in the Upstairs Bedroom, and he was shaking so badly he wasn't sure whether he'd be able to even read it), and when the owl flew off in a huff Remus closed his window (the moon was large and bright but not full, not yet, not until tomorrow) and ripped into the envelope, which held three loose sheets of paper: one announcing that the writer was, "Pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry," a second listing the supplies he'd need to pick up in Diagon Alley (wand, textbooks, pets, ingredients, _it was all here, it was all true_), and a third piece of paper bearing a handwritten note from Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, who said he was delighted to invite Remus to school and that he didn't think Remus' uniqueness (_uniqueness_, he called it, not his _disease_ or _disorder _or _mutation_ or _half-breeded-ness_, but his _uniqueness_) would hinder his education, but just to be sure he would be setting up a safe place for Remus to stay during every full moon - Remus' cheeks were beginning to ache from the smile stretched across his face - and he would see to it that the teachers didn't give him a hard time about missing classes once a month, and with a cry (albeit a soft one) of jubilation Remus pushed the acceptance letter and supply list out of his way and collapsed onto his bed with the handwritten note in his grip, reading it over and over until the sun was peeping into his bedroom and he knew every word by heart, because even if this was just a dream, he wanted to remember exactly how it went when he woke up (or maybe he would never wake up, maybe that tapping at his window had been death after all, and this was his own personal paradise of an afterlife); and when his mother popped her head in to call him for breakfast, he tackled her in a giant hug and showed her Dumbledore's note, and she began to weep even as she claimed to have known all along that it was coming; his father, too, cried when he heard the news, and then all three of the Lupins were sobbing into their breakfasts, and Remus couldn't help pulling out his note and reading it at random moments throughout the day, because he was going to Hogwarts, _he was going to Hogwarts_, and every heartbeat sounded like _thud - you - thud - are - thud - unique._

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_[Master of Sentences Challenge: Medium]_

_[Disney Character Competition: Rapunzel - write about someone whose dream is finally coming true. Prompt: Letter]_

_[Collect A Collection Competition: Remus Lupin (Marauder Era), Remus Lupin (Order of the Phoenix), "Hope"]_

_[100 Prompts: Clock]_

___[Twelve Days of Christmas Style Challenge: Canon Fic]_


	3. Sensible

_This was written primarily for the Master of Sentences Challenge. Its entire 1,064-word body is exactly one (grammatically correct, non-run-on) sentence._

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**Sensible**

Hermione Granger chose to celebrate her eleventh birthday by reading Pride and Prejudice again, even though her mother loudly disapproved every time she caught her rereading that particular novel (because Hermione was smart and Hermione was kind and Hermione was sensible, but sometimes she let her imagination run away with her, and Mrs. Granger could _see_ the wheels spinning in her head as she imagined herself finding a Mr. Darcy, but Hermione just wasn't the type of girl who was going to find a soulmate - nobody found a soulmate, really; even Hermione's parents fought, and the only reason they were still together was because of their daughter), because Pride and Prejudice wasn't a romance to Hermione, and she didn't identify with Elizabeth or Jane or even Lydia; no, it was Mary, plain, studious, ugly _Mary _with whom Hermione sympathized, because Mary had no desire to find a husband, and neither did Hermione: they were both too busy with learning, with education, with knowledge, and romance was a distraction that Hermione already knew she didn't want, even at age eleven (because her mother had had her first boyfriend at age ten and her first kiss at age twelve and her first child at age twenty and her first husband at twenty-two, and even though she had a successful career and she said all the time that she loved her family, Hermione could see a desperate kind of wistfulness behind her mother's eyes, as if she wished she could go back and fix all her mistakes); so Hermione read her book and shook her head at the silliness of all the girls but Mary, and she barely looked up when the postman knocked on the door - she was getting to a good part, now, where Mary played the piano - the postman knocked again - poor Mary, nobody was listening to her music skills - the postman knocked a third time - with a sigh through the nose, Hermione marked her place in her book and jumped up to see what on _Earth_ was so urgent, but when she pulled back the door there was nobody there, only an envelope on the doormat and a tabby cat slinking away around the corner, and Hermione, with a quick look around, snatched the letter and flipped it over to read the front: _Miss Hermione J. Granger_, the envelope read, and Hermione's eyebrows shot up beneath her bushy hair, because nobody _ever _wrote her (except her granddad when her birthday rolled around, but he was forgetful, and his card had already come in the post last week, and this wasn't his handwriting anyway), but there it was, written in dark green ink and stamped with a curious seal featuring a snake, a badger, an eagle, and a lion; Hermione ducked inside and ripped open the letter (maybe it was a birthday card from a secret admirer from school, or a gift certificate to a bookstore dropped off by a neighbor, or - and this one made her laugh to herself - maybe that tabby cat had dropped it off), which contained three separate sheets of paper: the first was a typed letter that began, "We are pleased to inform you that you've been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" (which was when she started to wonder whether this was an elaborate joke by her mother, to make fun of all the fantasy books she read); the second paper contained a list of "School Supplies," including a wand, a myriad of ingredients for "Potions Class," and a score of textbooks with strange, magic-related titles (which was when she started to get excited, because maybe this was her mother's whimsical way of revealing that her big birthday present was a trip to a bookshop); but the third letter was the one that made Hermione narrow her eyes, because the third letter was handwritten in that same green ink, and wasn't her mother's writing, it was too neat, it was too tidy - her mother's writing was an illegible scrawl, she couldn't form letters this neatly if she tried all day - and the wording wasn't right, her mother didn't use long flowery phrases like, "_As a Muggle (non-magical person) -born student, you are likely unaware of Hogwarts, but we will be sending a representative from the school to enlighten you and your family,_" or, "_Our faculty, staff, and portraits are eager to make your acquaintance,_" because her mother liked to use as few words as possible, and while she may have been a romantic once, she wasn't the imaginative type, and she definitely wouldn't have been able to think up a world where _portraits _could _meet _people; it was a practical joke, Hermione decided, probably played by that bully Thomas Murphy, and she crumpled up the letter and went back to her book (Mary was pouting now, because nobody would listen to her play), but another knock on the door startled her out of it; she crossed to the front door and stood on tiptoe to see out through the peephole, but there was nobody there, and when Hermione cautiously called out, "Hello?" she didn't get an answer, so she turned to go back to her seat at the kitchen table and finish her book -

- but there was already someone _sitting in her chair _-

- and Hermione screamed as the unfamiliar man with the long beard stood up and announced that his name was Albus Dumbledore, he was the Headmaster of that place called Hogwarts, he'd written the mysterious letter, and he wanted to speak to her parents about letting her enroll in his school for witches and wizards - that was what she was, he explained, a witch (which was why she could sometimes unlock doors without keys, and why Thomas Murphy always fell ill right after he teased her, and why she _just knew _the answers to things without knowing _how _she knew them) - and when she said she didn't believe him, he pulled a long stick from his pocket and tapped Pride and Prejudice twice, and suddenly her book was swelling, and its pages were flipping wildly, and before her eyes it turned into a life-sized paper piano with a life-sized paper Hermione sitting at the bench playing Mary's song -

(- and it was _that_, for reasons that she didn't understand until years later, that made Hermione burst into tears).

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_[Master of Sentences Challenge: Hard]_

_[Disney Character Competition: Louis - write about Hermione Granger. Prompt: Reading]_

_[Twelve Days of Christmas Style Challenge: Canon Fic]_


	4. Distraught

**Distraught**

Argus Filch ran downstairs in his socks at five in morning on his eleventh birthday because he knew his letter would be waiting for him on the table.

(But it wasn't.)

His owl must have gotten lost, he reasoned as he shoveled down cake for breakfast, and it would be here by lunchtime at the latest.

(But it wasn't.)

But maybe Hogwarts letters didn't come until dinnertime - he wouldn't know, he didn't have any siblings to ask, only his father, who wasn't ever home, and his mother, who couldn't remember what time her letter had come through.

So Argus went outside to play with his friend Griffin, who wouldn't turn eleven until next month, and together they fantasized about getting their letters.

(Dinnertime came and went.)

After dessert, Argus' mother brought out a giant box with a floppy bow on the top, and Argue tore into it, positive that the size of the present was a ruse and at the bottom would be his Hogwarts letter.

All he found inside was a kitten.

She was lovely, and soft, and she nestled into Argus' shoulder when he picked her up.

(But she wasn't what he'd wanted.)

He waited up all night for the _tap tap tap _of an owl at his window.

(It never came.)

When he came downstairs in his socks the next morning, clinging to his cat and trying to pretend he wasn't horribly distraught, his mother suggested that maybe Hogwarts had his birthday wrong, and the letter would show up in a day or two.

(It didn't come.)

(Not that day.)

(Not the next day.)

(Not the next month, when an owl dropped off Griffin's.)

(Not the next year, when Argus turned twelve.)

(Not when they wrote to the headmaster.)

(Not when they wrote to the Ministry.)

(Not when he cried in the dark.)

(Not when he _prayed__._)

(Never.)


End file.
